Eclectic SOLI concert tonight at McNay

The SOLI Chamber Ensemble is wrapping up their season tonight with a concert at the McNay Art Museum — a concert that was received enthusiastically on Tuesday. Just a quick reminder — today’s (Wednesday, May 9) free Symphony outdoor concert at the Rackspace Green Day event was canceled yesterday due to the anticipated bad weather. Rackspace will reschedule their 4th annual Green Day event in June. But, SOLI’s final concert of the year will proceed tonight rain or shine.

The final SOLI concert explores a wide variety of new music, including three world premieres. The concert was also webcasted live last night. Two of the five works contained a theatrical element, and for me, those two works were the highlight of the program. On the first half Paul Moravec’s Andy Warhol Sez included short quotes from Warhol spoken by bass clarinetist Stephanie Key before each of the seven movements. (The McNay is currently offering an exhibition called Andy Warhol: Fame and Misfortune.) Moravec’s musical comments on Warhol are witty, and the relationship between the bass clarinet and the piano part (performed by Carolyn True) was some of the most interesting music of the evening.

Kristen Clotfelter

The concert concludes with the biggest production — Steven Mackey’s Prelude to the End. This work is for all four SOLI members plus a video by Mark DeChiazza that featured the movement and choreography of dancer Kristen Clotfelter. Mark, Steven and Kristen were in attendance last night and their pre-concert talk (beginning at 7 p.m.) was helpful in understanding their ideas. When you attend tonight’s concert, I recommend getting there at 7 p.m. for the pre-concert talk.

I am always somewhat of a skeptic when I’m about to attend a new music concert that features music with video. I’m old fashioned, and I often find the video is distracting. But, Prelude to the End very effectively integrates the two art forms. DeChiazza and Clotfelter use simple motions repeated over and over again with subtle variations. Mackey’s music marries virtuosic fast music with contrasting sections that represent the gravitas that comes with life’s experiences. Together it made for a powerful experience.

Violinist Ertan Torgul and cellist David Mollenauer were each featured in two wildly different works. The first work on the program by Richard Carrick included microtonal melodies. Microtonal music explores the notes between the half-steps of western music. That means there are pitches between the note F and F#. This is challenging to ears raised on the scale based on 12 pitches. The second half opened with a work by Led Zeppelin as arranged for four cellos by Matt Haimovitz. Cellist David Mollenauer recorded three of the cello parts and then performed the top cello line live. There was certainly a generational gap at Trinity University, as this piece received lots of applause. For me, these two works by Carrick and Led Zeppelin/Haimovitz were the least engaging works on this excellent program because they were not about development. In his program notes, Carrick states, “La scene miniature quartet does away with development in favor of capturing precise musical moments.” I don’t find that style of music very compelling.

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